Community Resilience Definition Revisited

When I first created my definition of community resilience I related it to the saying “A chain is only as strong as the weakest link” and defined community resilience as a collection of individuals working and supporting one another for the collective good. I do think my definition of community resilience has changed slightly since that first definition.

I still do think that community resilience can still be compared to that saying however I think it isn’t necessarily only about the individuals and how they make up the whole. Instead I think it is how the individuals work to create a sustainable and accessible system. I think if the community is truly resilient then the system that has been put into place can stand time and doesn’t have any barriers for anyone in the community. This can be any system from healthcare, to shelter, or even to digital infrastructure. By a community creating resilient systems that are able to adapt and be sustainable through any disruptions to these systems like environmental disasters, pandemic, economic disruptions etc. then that is community resilience.

I think a lot of this change in my thinking of community resilience has come from the different speakers we have had in class. The main ones that have had the most impact on my definition of community resilience was all the speakers talking about digital infrastructure and how to make mesh networks in different environments and locations. Making internet affordable, accessible, and also resilient to environmental factors to me was so impressive and I can see all the benefits for the community. I think that is huge for community resilience is that it benefits everyone in the community and not just a select group of people.